Real professionals wanted for new era

From athletes to white-collar employees, being professional has become the catchphrase for a new era. Some say the country is in a desperate race to catch up with the professional standards of its neighbors before the opening up of the job market to all- comers in 2003. The Jakarta Post's Bruce Emond and Rita Widiadana look at what it takes to be professional.

JAKARTA (JP): "Bayu" has a nightly ritual in his job as the supervisor of a bar at a major hotel.

It begins long before the first customers have arrived. He runs a finger along counters to check for dust, makes an inspection of the toilets and looks over the room to check everything is in place.

He continues to keep tabs on business during the rest of the night, giving pointers to his staff, making sure his regulars are doing fine and helping new punters settle in. A stray napkin or empty glass left to linger too long does not escape his eye.

To him, it's all part of doing his job and being professional.

A few kilometers across the city "John" has put in another low-intensity day at the office. The expatriate makes it a habit to arrive late, with standard excuses of traffic jams or, season permitting, the rain.

He does the bare minimum to get by, frequently taking cigarette breaks or checking his e-mail. His muted interest and dismal lack of a work ethic are because he sees the job as merely a stepping stone to bigger and better things.

Bayu and John are examples of how being professional is not about one's job or position, but how one measures up to the task. Competence, efficiency, integrity and conscientiousness are often named as the qualities of a true professional.

You do not need to be a top executive to have the quality of a professional. Everybody, from an athlete to a Cabinet minister, could and should be a professional.

If you work in an office, it is not how many hours you put into your job but what you do with your time that makes you professional, according to Eileen Rachman, the director of executive development agency Experd.

"You can spend 12 hours at your desk, but you might not be using that time efficiently and professionally," she said. "You may be talking to friends or playing computer games and karaoke, and that is not using time efficiently. That's not professional."

Eileen said it was difficult to be professional "because a lot of people's work habits in Indonesia are so bad ... there is a lack of focus, direction, they are easily satisfied. It's a case of asal jadi (as long as the work gets done)."

Indonesia is notorious for its low human resources index. It is also rated as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

Obstacles to being professional in some Indonesian workplaces include poor management, low salaries and lack of organizational structure, compounded by rampant corruption and a hierarchy in which whoever has been around long enough often gets tipped for a top position.

"We cannot just blame Indonesian people for lacking in professionalism," Djisman Simanjuntak, executive director of Prasetya Mulya business school, said. "There are some factors which may shape one's sense of professionalism -- outside and inside factors including educational and cultural background, skills, moral values and attitudes."

Jewelry company promotion manager Rini A. Moerjono admitted that she sometimes was caught between being professional and "our eastern values ... we should be firm, but feelings enter into it and it ends up that we can't say no."

Eileen said assertiveness was an important quality of being professional, especially for managers.

"You can be obedient and a coward, or disciplined, obedient and professional with an opinion. Those are the rules of the game, but a lot of people only want to criticize others behind their back."

A manager has to be professional enough to make a firm decision, including one that might bruise egos, she added.

Dark scenario

The call to make professional habits in the workplace the rule has gained urgency as the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), now less than two and a half years away, gets closer. There is a dark scenario of the country being flooded with expatriates from neighboring countries -- and locals being left out in the cold.

Djisman said that Indonesians will have to work extremely hard to prepare their best human resources in the so-called New Economy era, where they will be part of the global community and subject to international market rules.

"We have to totally change our mind-set, to reform our education, social and economic systems to face global challenges, something almost impossible for Indonesians to achieve for the time being," he said.

The country's educational system, according to marketing executive Anita Wells, has failed in instilling professional values in both educators and their students. "Our system is really terrible. We didn't get anything from 350 years under the Dutch, and over 32 years (of the New Order) education was denied to people to keep them oppressed."

Some of the slack is being picked up by business management institutes which offer courses emphasizing professionalism.

The nagging question, however, is whether the qualities of being professional, unlike everyday job skills, can be instilled. Can a good work ethic, integrity, and concern about one's duties be taught as an in-house office computer program can?

Administrators from several business institutes acknowledged that environmental factors -- educational background, personality, the examples set by others -- were important contributors to whether someone is professional.

The institute's students are people whose professional qualities are already in place -- or sadly lacking.

Even when the spirit is willing to design a thorough organizational system, the flesh -- measured in the willingness of human resources to carry it out -- can be woefully weak.

"The Army has the most well organized system in Indonesia; there is a career path, it is all laid out for them," said Eileen. "But the reality is that it doesn't happen that way."

There are those who argue that true professionals can only be nurtured with salaries commensurate with their skills and tasks.

Eileen recognized the problem of poor salaries -- "nearly all professionals in this country are underpaid" -- but said people who were professional maintained their job integrity whatever the situation.

She said there were changes in the younger generation. "They know so much more about technology, so they can get jobs done more efficiently and quicker."

The qualities of being professional, regardless of the job, were brought home to Eileen by her son. She was initially taken aback when he decided to become a deejay because she did not consider entertainment to be a viable career option.

She admitted his professional approach to his career made her eat her words.

"Now I see he is working 18-hour days, earning money, making marketing plans. He is working consistently and doing a good job. That's the foundation of being professional."